226 FOOTNOTES FROM 



sweet seasons of indescribable beauty and pleasure, are 

 nigh. 



Certain genera and species occur only in tropical 

 and sub-tropical regions, having their northern limit in 

 the north of Africa or the coast of the Mediterranean. 

 Several genera and species are confined to New Zealand, 

 others to Ceylon and Java, others to the Cape de Verde 

 Islands and the United States. " In the Sikkim and 

 neighbouring Himalayas we have species of every differ- 

 ent climate at different heights. We have below Poly- 

 porus sanguineus and xanthopiis, which are peculiar to 

 the hottest parts of the tropics ; higher up we have 

 the species of Ceylon and Java ; we have then the 

 species of Southern Europe ; and finally, the more north- 

 ern species ; or, if we have not the identical species, we 

 have others so nearly allied that it is matter of diffi- 

 culty to distinguish them. One species occurs as high as 

 18,000 feet, while others flourished in the warm vale at 

 a comparatively low height above the level of the sea." 



But while the fungi are, to a certain extent, restricted in 

 their geographical distribution within certain well-known 

 limits ; they are, on the other hand, almost ubiquitous 

 in their choice of habitats. There is hardly a single 

 substance on which some species or other of them may 

 not, under favourable circumstances, be found. As a 

 general rule they all grow on dead and decaying organic 

 matter, on the mouldering trunks and branches of trees 

 and withered plants, and on the bones and droppings of 

 animals. But they are also occasionally found on living 

 trees, and on green leaves, and parts of plants that show 

 no symptoms of decay. A large class called hypoder- 



